Garrett to Brent: ‘We all love you’

IRVING – Less than 72 hours after he was charged with intoxication manslaughter in a drunk-driving accident that claimed the life of his best friend and teammate, Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent was at Valley Ranch visiting coaches, players and medical personnel.

Among those Brent met with Monday was coach Jason Garrett, who described the 24-year-old native of Bloomington, Ill., as “distraught about the situation.” Garrett said he told Brent during a private meeting “we all love you and we’re going to be here for you.”

If convicted, Brent faces a prison sentence of two to 20 years. In 2009, he served a brief jail sentence in Illinois after a DWI arrest.

“We’re going to support Josh 100 percent in every way we can,” Garrett said. “Everyone in our organization will do that…It’s a very, very difficult and challenging situation for him.”

Brent was released from an Irving jail on Sunday after posting $500,000 bond. He’s expected to attend today’s memorial service in Dallas for Jerry Brown, the 25-year-old practice squad linebacker and former member of the San Antonio Talons who was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital early Saturday morning after a fiery wreck police said began with Brent speeding in his 2007 Mercedes on a Highway 114 service road.

Brent and Brown were teammates and roommates at Illinois. The two roomed together again after Dallas signed Brown on Oct. 24.

“I haven’t spoken to him specifically about (the service), but we would anticipate him being there and he is certainly welcome to be there,” Garrett said of Brent. “He and Jerry Brown are very close and their families are close.”

Garrett said he “doesn’t know any specifics” about whether the NFL plans to suspend Brent for violating its personal conduct policy. As of Monday night, he remains on the team’s 53-man active roster.

“The focus with Josh is just to let him know we’re all here for him and to help him get through the day,” Garrett said. “There’s a lot of discussion that’s going to go on about that and I don’t want to make any comment as to what his status is.”

Meanwhile, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating the club where Brent and Brown and possibly several other players were at Friday night before the fiery wreck occurred.

KRLD-FM in Dallas reported Brent and Brown, as well as other players, had been at Privae Dallas, a private club where comedian Shawn Wayans performed Friday night.

It’s not known whether Brent or Brown called the NFL Players Association’s Safe Rides Program, a service players can call to make arrangements for a cab or a driver to pick them up when they have been drinking.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones told KRLD-FM on Monday morning that the club is just “getting our hands around all this,” a stance Garrett reiterated at an afternoon news conference.

It was another emotional day for the coach, who paused to gather himself at one point while talking about his phone call Sunday afternoon to Brown’s mother, Stacey Jackson, to inform her the club was giving her the game ball it awarded to her son posthumously after the dramatic 20-19 win at Cincinnati.

“I really loved talking to Jerry’s mom,” Garrett said. “I wanted to tell her what our team did and I just said, ‘Hey, this is Jason Garrett. I coach the Cowboys.’ She said, ‘Yeah, I just watched the game.’

“It was a hard conversation to get through but in a really good way. I just told her we loved her son and we were going to give her a game ball in his memory. He inspired us a great deal.”

Garrett’s challenge now is to prevent an emotional letdown. The Cowboys (7-6) rallied to beat the Bengals and stay in the playoff hunt on Dan Bailey’s 40-yard field goal as time expired, but they could be without wide receiver Dez Bryant when they host Pittsburgh (7-6) on Sunday.

Bryant has a broken left index finger that could require season-ending surgery, the team’s website reported Monday night.

“We have to honor Jerry,” Garrett said, “and we have to help Josh in any way we can, but then we have to get back to work.”